Ready for What?
Staff editorial

With wildfires nearing Mission Viejo’s city limits and fire evacuees coming through town from all directions, there was never a better time for the city to implement its emergency plan. Beyond the opportunity to help residents of other areas who had no place to go, Mission Viejo also has a 6,500 sq. ft. Emergency Operations Center at the north end of city hall. It’s ready and waiting for multiple agencies – or even one agency – to set up a command post in an emergency situation. The much-heralded EOC was deemed essential by a former council majority as a communications center in the event of a disaster. About 10 days ago, its moment came – and went. Did anyone even turn on the lights in the EOC?

A writer on a county political blog asked why Mission Viejo didn’t open its EOC to fire evacuees from other cities. A quick anonymous reply – likely from someone in city hall – explained that the EOC is for the use of agencies, not ordinary citizens in need of shelter.

The truth came out before the smoke cleared. The EOC is an unused, empty box, and the need for it was probably exaggerated if not misrepresented. At the time city hall was built, in 2001, majority council members Sherri Butterfield, Susan Withrow and Bill Craycraft seemed to envision a monstrous building, even if it was mostly empty. Hallways throughout the building are extraordinarily wide, and the building has at least 12 conference rooms, just in case there’s an epidemic need for conferences. The true purpose of the EOC room was probably to enlarge the city hall building so that the mostly empty first floor could hold up the second floor.

An Oct. 26 Saddleback Valley News article quoted Paul Catsimanas, a Mission Viejo assistant manager at city hall who is in charge of the city’s disaster preparedness. From Catsimanas’ remarks, it’s unclear what he or the city staff did, or if anyone asked the city to do anything as winds fanned the flames toward Mission Viejo. He said, “We continue to monitor the situation and the city is ready to step up. Our city employees who are trained for disasters are on standby.”

In a contract city with the OCFA fighting the fires, the Sheriff’s Dept. handling traffic and medical professionals answering medical calls, what exactly are city hall employees trained to do? By the way, when the real emergency teams were working 24 hours a day, did any city hall employee monitor and stand by after 5 p.m.?

As reported last week in The Buzz column, Orange County Register columnist Frank Mickadeit said he was stopped in Mission Viejo traffic on Crown Valley, which had all but one lane closed, on the day 250,000 people were evacuated from San Diego County. Apparently, the city is so concerned about keeping its promise of finishing the road only one or two years behind schedule it couldn’t stop the roadwork for a few hours to let traffic through. The one thing the city might have done to ease the situation was overlooked.

The Oct. 26 SVN article also mentioned the possibility of Mission Viejo High School being available as a shelter. The Red Cross may have considered it. However, with school in session and no place to park, all those fleeing the fires would have been wise to keep going.

On the Nov. 5 council meeting agenda under Staff Comments, the city manager is scheduled to provide an “Update of City Activities Related to the Santiago Fire Incident.”

The Santiago fire wasn’t an incident. If the city staff didn’t know it was an emergency, they weren’t involved enough to comment. As for the update, Catsimanas already told SVN about the city’s role of monitoring and standing by.

This blog has repeatedly asked that the city release an outline of its readiness plan – print it in the City Outlook newsletter. The county and emergency agencies have likely come to the same conclusion as the blog about the city’s emergency preparedness.

Modjeska Ranch Animal Rescue Needs Help
News brief

Volunteers are responding to the wildfire disaster by holding a fundraiser for the Modjeska Ranch Animal Rescue. Anyone wanting to help can contribute used clothing and household items to a garage sale, with 100 percent of proceeds going to the animal rescue. Used blankets and towels are also requested for use in the shelter. Please bring donated items to the sale site by Friday, Nov. 9. Call (949) 380-4154 for pickup of large items.

The garage sale will be held at 26511 Via Gaviota (near Trabuco/Los Alisos in Mission Viejo) on Saturday, Nov. 10, from 7 a.m. to noon.

The shelter survived the fire that destroyed almost every other nearby structure. All rescue animals were safely evacuated, and they will return as soon as the shelter can be repaired and reopened. The fences were burned, and the shelter is smoke-damaged. The shelter houses dogs, cats, horses, goats, pigs, iguanas, birds and other animals.

Modjeska Ranch Rescue is a non-profit rescue organization based in Modjeska Canyon. It operates as an all-volunteer rescue dedicated to finding great homes for neglected and abandoned animals. The organization was founded by Russell and Teresa Taylor in 2001. The Taylors, in tandem with community support, have placed more than 3,000 animals into new homes. The Website address is http://www.modjeskaranchrescue.org.

Aside from the garage sale fundraiser, the volunteers are also asking for donations to Modjeska Ranch Rescue, c/o 26511 Via Gaviota, Mission Viejo, CA 92691. Any amount will be greatly appreciated.

Sunrise Promotes Happy Talk About a Park
Staff editorial

Two council members have items on the Nov. 5 council agenda regarding Sunrise’s senior housing proposal for the Casta del Sol golf course. Why do Council Members Gail Reavis and Frank Ury have separate items on the agenda about the same topic? Will any council member support the Sunrise project with happy talk about a Great Park for Mission Viejo?

The last time residents rallied against a housing project, approximately 3,000 signatures were gathered in opposition to rezoning the 23-acre parcel at Los Alisos and Jeronimo. The council responded by ignoring all those who spoke against the housing project, including residents who presented a four-inch-high stack of signed petitions. After all five council members gave their reasons for supporting the project – as if they were employees or agents for the developer – they voted 5-0 to approve Steadfast’s high-density condo plan.

One big difference between Steadfast’s project and Sunrise’s proposal should be noted. Steadfast’s project at Los Alisos and Jeronimo is surrounded on three sides by commercial properties. Residential developments are within a stone’s throw, but nearby homeowners didn’t unite or mount much opposition. Instead, several highly confused renters and condo owners fell for Steadfast’s “free lunch” sales pitch that an affordable-housing project was beneficial to their neighborhood.

Sunrise Senior Living has made the mistake of planning its high-density housing next to three gated communities: Casta del Sol, Cypress Point and Finisterra. The homeowners comprise senior citizens who will put up a fierce battle against such an intrusion. As another difference, the residents of Casta del Sol, Cypress Point and Finisterra can win by uniting against the developer.

Following is a copy of the letter some residents received from Sunrise, which was forwarded to the blog. One letter recipient added the comment, “What a bunch of lies!”

(On Sunrise Senior Living letterhead; all letters forwarded to the blog were dated October 10, 2007)

Sunrise would like to thank the hundreds of individuals who contacted us or attended the open house for our proposed retirement community and park. The feedback you provided gave us a better understanding of the needs and concerns of the surrounding community.

For instance, many residents indicated an interest in living in our proposed senior community and others found the proposed park and its walking and jogging trails appealing. We also received feedback from a number of residents who shared concerns about issues like traffic impacts, safety and privacy concerns and park maintenance issues.

Sunrise respects and appreciates the feedback we have received thus far and will be reviewing our plan in the coming weeks and months to determine how best to move forward and to respond to these comments.

We would also like to reiterate the point that if the plan moves forward, the public planning and approval process will likely take two to three years. This ensures there will be a number of opportunities for the community to provide input. It also means the golf course will remain playable for quite some time.

If you have any additional questions or suggestions, please visit our Web site at www.NewCommunityPark.com or call our information line at 595-0097.

Again, we appreciate your interest and pledge to keep you updated throughout our planning process.

Sincerely,

Wayne Sant, Sunrise Senior Living

CUSD – Use, Abuse, Ignore, Neglect and Abandon
A parent’s letter forwarded to the blog

Dear Superintendent Carter:

To briefly introduce myself, I am a parent of two graduates of CVHS and a current CVHS senior. I have been a parent in CUSD since 1991. I have been a Mission Viejo resident since 1983. In short, I have witnessed the expansive growth of CUSD as it has accommodated the development within its boundaries. 

Following are some memories of the cycle of use, abuse, ignore, neglect and abandon that my family has witnessed these last 17 years. Forgive me if my dates are not completely accurate, as I am relying purely on memory.

• 1992 - Newhart Elementary School was serving Mission Viejo and its surrounding communities proudly – losing and gaining populations until brand-new elementary schools were built. In 1992, the district started a “slam K-8” campaign to convince everyone of the evils of the K-8 education model. You see, the surrounding areas did not need an elementary school any longer – what they really needed was a middle school. Dr. Fleming seemingly relented to the parent outrage at this concept, so he delayed his decision, leaving a skeleton elementary school (it never even had a full-time principal until the year he closed it) that paled in comparison to the new fully staffed schools the surrounding communities were receiving. 
• 1996 -After Dr. Fleming started a virtual neighborhood war to distract from the issue, Newhart Middle was born, and Newhart Elementary died. Newhart then became the middle-school home for all those students pouring out of all those brand-new surrounding elementary schools. That is until, let me see if my memory serves me correctly, oh yeah, until they built that gorgeous K-8 in Las Flores! I believe we have a few more K-8's to date, which is not such a bad concept after all. I am sure you have heard all the physical site complaints about Newhart, so I will not belabor those. They closed Newhart Elementary the same year some sitting school board members came to the dedication ceremony for the parent-funded kindergarten playground equipment. Use, abuse, ignore, neglect, and abandon.
• 1999 -Boundary issues again start inner-city wars as everyone and their uncle want out of CVHS and into Tesoro. Why, do you ask?  The cycle of use, abuse, ignore, neglect and abandon ... never more severe than what I was about to learn about my children's future high school, CVHS.  Dr. Fleming and his board, for the sole reason of a grand successful opening of Tesoro, practically rape CVHS of its core students, split a city and Newhart in two, and continue to allow inter- and intra-district transfers of our best students out of CVHS to alleviate horrendous overcrowding.
• 2000 - My eldest joins the water polo team at CVHS. The day after he graduated from 8th grade, his new coach calls to tell him to report to Saddleback College Pool for practice. "Why not at Capo?" I ask. Apparently, Capo does not have a pool. The school is 22 years old. Again, not to belabor, but it took a group of highly motivated parents to finally delve into the machination of funds since CVHS was built to see the rise and fall of pool construction offers. (Not to mention the large and small gym issues.)
• Sept 10, 2001 - We are elated at the board meeting when Dr. Fleming and the board present their funding package for the pool. (The parents were the ones who led Mr. Doomey to the redevelopment funds.) We were perplexed at the simultaneous plan for the administration building, but thrilled nonetheless.
• Fall 2001- Tesoro opens, Capo's population is decimated. Use, abuse, ignore, neglect and abandon. (This also happened when Aliso Niguel opened.)
• Winter/Spring 2005- I served on the ABC committee for San Juan Hills High School. Dr. Fleming and the board's agenda was clear from the onset. They were not going to open that school with >40 percent Hispanic ratio. (A sitting board member said those exact words to me!) I was witnessing by far the most blatantly racist train wreck of my life, culminating with Dr. Fleming having an epiphany in the final hours of approval that CVHS needed the attendance, which only the poorest areas of San Juan could supply. Use, abuse, ignore, neglect, and abandon.
• Winter 2007 - After three years of fundraising, a small group of parents and Varsity Song leaders purchase and INSTALL a dance floor in the old wood shop room at CVHS. Prior to that, the girls had been dancing on cement. CVHS is now 29 years old. The improvements to the school admittedly from 2000 to 2007 are vast. But I know they came only after highly vocal and unrelenting parents made it abundantly clear how fed up they were and are with USE, ABUSE, IGNORE, NEGLECT and ABANDON.
• Fall 2007 - San Juan Hills opens. I will not get into the litany of how beautiful, how equipped, etc. We have seen it all before. But to sit here in my 17th year at CUSD and be bombarded by e-mails from parents in Mission Viejo still feeling the pain of USE, ABUSE, IGNORE, NEGLECT and ABANDON that has plagued my three children's path through CUSD is quite frankly depressing as hell. That we are having the same discussion about yet another new facility NEEDING TO BE FULLY EQUIPPED before the 30-year-old grandmother of all high school construction misappropriations is taken care of is beyond reason.

I hope you have a better sense of fair play, and you have had an opportunity to see where all the cards lay in this multi-city poker game. Mission Viejo residents cannot fold anymore, and we are calling on you to stop this inequality.  San Juan Hills is two months old. They have a few hundred FRESHMAN, for goodness sake! They can wait their turn.  We all have. 

Respectfully,

Linda Noda

CUSD Call to Action – Attend the Board Meeting
by a CUSD parent

Instead of fixing the Mission Viejo schools in the Capistrano Unified School District, $15.3 million in funds are being used to add a pool, stadium and additional classrooms to San Juan Hills High School. Let the CUSD Board of Trustees know that you are sick and tired of your schools being ignored and neglected and you’re not going to take it any more!

What you can do:

• Attend the CUSD board meeting on Mon., Nov. 5, at 7 p.m. to state your opposition to this unfair allocation of funds (wear black and gold to show your support of CVHS).
• Email your opposition to Superintendent Carter at
   superintintendent@capousd.org
   and to
   HWHEELER@capousd.org
   requesting copies of your email be sent to the board members.
• Pass this message along to everyone you know.

Details:

The Board will vote on allocating the last of the Measure A funds to build a pool and football stadium and more new classrooms at San Juan Hills High School. Measure A was approved in 1999 to modernize schools. Measure A and Mission Viejo Mello-Roos funds collected in Mission Viejo have been spent outside Mission Viejo. The city of Mission Viejo conducted an audit that showed 30 percent of CUSD funds were raised in Mission Viejo and only 10 percent was spent in our city. This proposed action is stunning, and the CUSD board needs to hear from and see Mission Viejo residents at the meeting.

Interim Superintendent Chuck McCully put in place a "needs assessment process" to address the facility equity issues district-wide in response to the anger generated within CUSD about unequal facility spending and desperate facility conditions at schools throughout the district. Mr. McCully forced Dave Doomey to admit that he had lied about how facility funds were spent. San Juan Hills High School's projects have now been separated from the "needs assessment process" as a last-ditch effort by Marlene Draper to ensure that her "crowning achievement" (San Juan Hills High School) is completed before she leaves office. This cannot be allowed to occur when there remain great facility needs throughout the district.

The needs-assessment committee at Capistrano Valley High recommends the following for CVHS:

1) Site enhancements including:

• A Performing Arts Theater. CVHS is the only high school in the district without this facility and has had plans since 2004. The building would be used by all members of the campus and community and would also provide additional classrooms for choir, band, drama and dance – freeing up space in the main building.
• A completely renovated Physical Education Center (lockers, weight room, coaches' offices and wrestling room) with safety upgrades.
• An enlarged and reconfigured food service and eating area that would enable the student population to actually sit down at table to eat.
• Full stadium upgrades to meet district standards.

2) Upgrades in areas of educational impact including full technology improvements that have not been addressed in 10 years.

3) Uniform renovations throughout campus to remove aged materials and update all necessary flooring, wall coverings, etc.

4) Immediate attention to health and safety issues including:

• Inadequate ventilation systems throughout the school
• Aged portable classrooms
• Restroom facilities that meet state minimum requirements for the student population
• Safe drinking water in numerous locations
• Upgraded, campus-wide security cameras

The successful renovation of the CVHS campus is necessary to bring our 30-year-old campus up to the high school standards of our school district, and it should be considered an immediate priority in the master plan. You can view the CVHS PTSA modernization report at www.capoptsa.org.

The San Juan Hills High School amenities, when conceptional-planned, were to be funded by the developer if Measure CC passed. When Measure CC failed, Mello-Roos generated in Whispering Hills development was slated to fund the amenities. Grave facility needs remain unmet throughout the district, and citizens from all over should be outraged that Measure A funds would be committed to fund amenities at a new high school, which currently has only a freshmen class. With all the aging schools in CUSD, it is shocking that a pool and stadium at SJHHS would be considered the highest facility priority.

Ten Examples of Wisdom
Forwarded by Carl Schultheis, editor-in-chief

1.Don't worry about what people think; they don't do it very often.

2.Going to church doesn't make you a Christian any more than standing in a garage  makes you a car.

3.It’s not the jeans that make you look fat.

4.Artificial intelligence is no match for natural stupidity.

5.For every action, there is an equal and opposite government program.

6.If you look like your passport picture, you probably need the trip.

7.A conscience is what hurts when all of your other parts feel so good.

8.Men are from Earth. Women are from Earth. Deal with it.

9.No woman ever shot a man while he was doing the dishes.

10.If you must choose between two evils, pick the one you've never tried before.

The Buzz column, Nov. 3

A Buzz reader found a bright spot in the county’s political meltdown: “First, Sheriff Mike Carona’s old buddy George Jaramillo was busted for corruption. Some people predicted that Jaramillo wouldn’t go down alone, and he’s taking Carona with him. County D.A. Tony Rackaukas and some of the county supervisors are telling Carona to resign. Carona could do to others what Jaramillo did to him. If Carona turns on the county’s power club, it would be prime entertainment. I hope they’re so busy trying to bury each other that the county GOP stays out of Mission Viejo’s city elections.”

***

Conflicting news releases have appeared for several days, announcing that Carona is temporarily stepping aside … or not. The name appearing as the person temporarily in charge is Undersheriff Jo Ann Gilisky. Mission Viejo’s Jack Anderson frequently gets a mention when everyone is guessing who will become the next OC Sheriff.

***

Where’s the money? As part of Steadfast’s deal with the city to rezone its parcel at Jeronimo and Los Alisos, Steadfast was supposed to pay the city $2 million because it provided no park or recreation space in its development. Councilwoman Trish Kelley was among those going on about the bonanza of having $2 million to spend. Somehow, the tremendous cost (to the neighborhood, property values, city services including police, fire, etc.) went over her head. Damage has already taken place with more traffic, additional stoplights, an unsightly corner, etc. When will Steadfast pay up?

***

Buzz readers continue to ask why the city is still meeting behind closed doors with Steadfast and Target. Possibilities include Steadfast trying to get the parcel zoned back to commercial after putting residents through the mill. Most of those speculating believe Steadfast wants out after taking a financial beating. Steadfast said publicly more than a year ago that Target would take over after a certain period of time if Steadfast wasn’t able to complete the housing component of the mixed-use plan.

***

Report from a Target shopper: “I often drive by the two Target stores in Mission Viejo to compare how busy they are. I’m still concerned Target will close the store on Alicia after saying both stores will stay open. The new store was very busy for two weeks after it opened in October. This week, the new store’s parking lot was half empty, and the old store’s huge lot was full. The vacant lot (Steadfast) next to the new store still has a couple graders and other equipment parked there, plus two portable toilets – what a nice sight for Target’s customers.”

***

Parents in the Capo school district are urging community members to attend the school board meeting on Mon., Nov. 5, at the district office, 33122 Valle Road in San Juan Capistrano. On the agenda is $15 million in expenses for the new high school in San Juan, dubbed “dump high” for its location next to a dumpsite. Mission Viejo parents are urging the board to spend more on deteriorating schools instead of continuing to give the new high school preferential treatment. Cost of the new high school has already exceeded $150 million. The board meeting begins at 7 p.m.